Three faculty with ties to Medical School to receive Sarah Goddard Power Award for 2022
University of Michigan honor recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the betterment of women through their leadership, scholarship or other ways in their professional life
A. Oveta Fuller, Ph.D., and Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., both of the Medical School, and Bhramar Mukherjee, Ph.D., of the School of Public Health, who also holds an appointment in the Rogel Cancer Center, will receive 2022 Sarah Goddard Power Awards.
The awards, given by the Academic Women’s Caucus, will be presented virtually from 3-5 p.m. on Feb. 1.
Named after the late Regent Sarah Goddard Power, the award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the betterment of women through their leadership, scholarship or other ways in their professional life.
Fuller, left, is an associate professor of microbiology and immunology and member of the African Studies Center. Her laboratory research team and interdisciplinary collaborators studied early events in herpes simplex and influenza virus replication.
Her implementation science research with the Trusted Messenger intervention partners with officials of community organizations in Zambia, South Africa and the United States for prevention of HIV/AIDS and recently on COVID-19.
Fuller was the first woman to achieve tenure in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
“Upon achieving tenure, Dr. Fuller took her interests in viral entry and viral pathogenesis and made a conscious effort to do more community-based work focused on education regarding infectious disease, … which is a significant issue for women, and especially women of color,” said Bethany Moore, Ph.D., the Nancy Walls Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and chair of microbiology and immunology, in a nominating letter.
The Newman Family Professor of Radiation Oncology, Jagsi, center, is deputy chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology and director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the U-M.
She has led seminal studies quantifying underrepresentation of women in authorship, editorial, principal investigator and leadership positions in medicine and in comparable compensation. She also is internationally recognized for research to strengthen autonomy in breast cancer patients and to individualize breast cancer care.
“Dr. Jagsi is an international scholar, advocate and leading voice for gender and BIPOC equity, and a well-funded researcher who lifts many women through inspiration, collaboration, and mentorship. She embodies the virtues of Sarah Goddard Power and I cannot support her more highly for this reward,” said David J. Brown, M.D., associate dean and associate vice president for health equity and inclusion, and associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, in a nominating letter.
Mukherjee, right, a professor of epidemiology and global public health, is chair of the biostatistics department. She also serves as the associate director for quantitative data sciences in the Rogel Cancer Center.
Mukherjee is highly engaged in the Precision Health Initiative and serves as the associate director for cohort development. Her research interests include statistical methods for the analysis of electronic health records, studies of gene-environment interaction, Bayesian methods, shrinkage estimation and analysis of high dimensional exposure data.
Jenna Wiens, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said of Mukherjee: “Her record as a mentor to students and faculty, especially women, is exemplary. Not only does (she) serve as a significant role model for women in biostatistics but she also works to create opportunities for women across the university and beyond.”
Wiens said she benefits from working with Mukherjee, who “is not in my department or even my college, yet she has encouraged me and supported me in numerous endeavors” since coming to EECS in 2014.
In addition to these individual awards, the School of Kinesiology and Department of Mechanical Engineering will be recognized with Rhetaugh G. Dumas Progress in Diversifying Awards.
Read more about the 2022 Power and Dumas award recipients in The University Record.